Historical Contingency in Microbial Resilience to Hydrologic Perturbations
Open Access
- 9 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Water
Abstract
Development of reliable biogeochemical models requires a mechanistic consideration of microbial interactions with hydrology. Microbial response to and its recovery after hydrologic perturbations (i.e., resilience) is a critical component to understand in this regard, but generally difficult to predict because the impacts of future events can be dependent on the history of perturbations (i.e., historical contingency). Fundamental issues underlying this phenomenon include how microbial resilience to hydrologic perturbations is influenced by historical contingency and how their relationships vary depending on the characteristics of microbial functions. To answer these questions, we considered a simple microbial community composed of two species that redundantly consume a common substrate but specialize in producing distinct products and developed a continuous flow reactor model where the two species grow with trade-offs along the flow rate. Simulations of this model revealed that (1) the history of hydrologic perturbations can lead to the shifts in microbial populations, which consequently affect the community's functional dynamics, and (2) while historical contingency in resilience was consistently predicted for all microbial functions, it was more pronounced for specialized functions, compared to the redundant function. As a signature of historical contingency, our model also predicted the emergence of hysteresis in the transitions across conditions, a critical aspect that can affect transient formation of intermediate compounds in biogeochemistry. This work presents microbial growth traits and their functional redundancy or specialization as fundamental factors that control historical contingencies in resilience.This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- Aquatic Carbon-Nutrient Dynamics as Emergent Properties of Hydrological, Biogeochemical, and Ecological Interactions: Scientific AdvancesWater Resources Research, 2018
- Historical precipitation predictably alters the shape and magnitude of microbial functional response to soil moistureGlobal Change Biology, 2016
- Historical Contingency in Community Assembly: Integrating Niches, Species Pools, and Priority EffectsAnnual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 2015
- Pre-exposure to drought increases the resistance of tropical forest soil bacterial communities to extended droughtThe ISME Journal, 2012
- A trait‐based approach for modelling microbial litter decompositionEcology Letters, 2012
- Trait-Based Representation of Biological Nitrification: Model Development, Testing, and Predicted Community CompositionFrontiers in Microbiology, 2012
- Resistance, resilience, and redundancy in microbial communitiesProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008
- Crowding effects promote coexistence in the chemostatJournal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 2006
- Coexistence in a Model of Competition in the Chemostat Incorporating Discrete DelaysSIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 1989
- Coexistence of competing predators in a chemostatJournal of Mathematical Biology, 1983